Middletown Public Library may be subject of A&E network series 'Morbid Curiosity'

Unexplained noises, chairs moving and books unexplainedly falling from shelves — they’re part of the lore of the Middletown Public Library building.

View full sizeA.R. DRESHER, SubmittedMiddletown Public Library head librarian Christine Porter being filmed for the Arts & Entertainment network show "Paranormal Activity."

They’ve been fodder for the library’s “ghost tours,” but now might be reaching a wider audience through cable television.

Producers of the Arts & Entertainment network show “Paranormal Activity” were at the library Feb. 3-4 filming what they hope might be a new 22-episode series, which they’re calling “Morbid Curiosity.”

Head librarian Christine Porter said she learned from a friend in the entertainment industry that the show was looking for locations and contacted them to plug the library’s possible paranormal attributes.

The producers were interested in the library because of its historical background, Porter said. It was first a firehouse in the late 1890s, and last served that purpose in the early 1970s. The library opened there in 1977 or 1978, she said.

Traci Law, host and co-executive producer, said she found it fascinating that a set of doors in the library came from an old orphanage. The building once housed old horse-drawn fire wagons, and she was told a firefighter might have committed suicide there in the 1920s.

That, coupled with some unexplained “mischievous” goings-on reported by the staff, led them to choose the building for the series.

The Middletown library segment will be combined with another library with possible paranormal activity in Phoenixville, Law said, adding that she hopes the show will also boost interest in libraries.

The program is expected to air in spring on the Internet-based Paranormal Television Network. She’s hoping it is eventually picked up on a cable network.

“We’re not the normal ghost-hunting shows. We’re very much dedicated to preserving history,” Law said.

“We’re more the urban explorers. We go into abandoned places — legally — and see what’s left behind,” she said, although the library is an exception in that it is occupied.

Even if people don’t believe in paranormal phenomenon, Law said they can enjoy going to explore the places in the series. “When I was a kid, if a place was ‘haunted,’ it was a cool place to go, whether it was haunted or not.”

In the program, Law and several others typically go into the building and investigate it and its history, and then bring in a team of paranormal investigators.

“We’re not there so much to prove or disprove,” Law said, adding that if they find a reasonable explanation, they point it out. If there is no explanation, they look at possible paranormal activity.

In a previous filming, she said a “permissible combustible gas detector” used by one of the investigators actually uncovered a major gas leak. Another piece of detection equipment detects electromagnetic fields, Law said.

They’re also examining several locations in Philadelphia, including City Hall, the old penitentiary and the old Episcopal Hospital in North Philadelphia.

Porter said she hopes the episode can eventually be shown at the Elks Theatre in Middletown.

The library building has plenty of fodder for the show, Porter said. She held the first “ghost tours” in October at the library as a fundraiser, and is planning more for this year, possibly coordinated with a motorcoach tour. “People are asking for more,” she said.

Most of the stories come from Porter and her staff, “because we live it. We see it every day.”

“I once lived in Salem, Mass., for seven years. The ghost thing fascinates me,” she said.

One of Porter’s favorite ghost stories stems from one day when she was typing on her computer in her first floor office during an online course she was taking. As the staff left for the day, she jokingly said, “Don’t let the ghosts get out.”

Soon afterward, “I started hearing banging in the hallway. I thought it was them for sure, but there was no answer.”

After she went back in her office, she began hearing noises upstairs in the children’s area from puzzles that make animal noises. “I decided to go home,” she said, and the puzzle was soon sold at a book sale.

Another time, she had her dog with her while working in the library on a Sunday when he “uttered a growl I had never heard him utter before. He ran to the center of the floor and looked all around, and then ran to the front door. I thought OK, we’re going home.”

Porter’s also heard stories from highway department workers cleaning the building about chairs unexplainedly moving, books falling from shelves and vacuum cleaners going on and off. “This happens all the time,” she said.

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